Unfortunately, the spirit of "absenteeism" extended itself to the holders of offices in Ireland, and even the lord-lieutenant rarely took up his residence in Dublin for any time longer than necessitated by the immediate demands of his installation and speech-making, although he drew his emoluments from the Irish revenues.

Your committee conceive that, if this act remains upon your statute book and these bills are forbidden to be passed, upon that contingency, there would then be established by law a set of men entitled to exclusive privileges and emoluments, which is forbidden by the Bill of Rights.

With Hillary's expected appointment tomorrow comes a round of buzz about "emoluments" and specifically the question of whether, under a fairly straightforward reading of the Constitution, her appointment isn't constitutional.

The constitutional quandary arises from a clause that forbids members of the Senate from being appointed to civil office, such as the secretary of state, if the "emoluments," or salary and benefits, of the office were increased during the senator's term.

Article I, Section 6 prohibits a member of Congress from accepting an Executive Office of the "emoluments" [compensation] were "encreased" during that term of Congress [18th century spelling of "increased".